1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to scaffolding employed to work on the exterior walls of multi-story buildings. More particularly, the invention involves an adjustable cantilever scaffolding to be employed on the upper face of a surface such as a walkway or balcony of a multi-story building and includes a cantilever portion extending over the safety wall of the surface to provide a support for workboards for a workman.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Maintenance and repairs to the outside walls of multi-story buildings have always proven to be difficult and expensive, especially those buildings that include outside supporting surfaces, such as walkways or balconies, which increases the areas that are difficult to reach. Various techniques have been employed to reach the areas needing work; the more common ones involve the use of stacked scaffolding for the lower floors and suspended scaffolding from the rooftop. Stacked scaffolding becomes impractical as the number of floors increases and safety of workmen becomes a greater problem. On the other hand, suspended scaffolding is difficult, time consuming and expensive to install. Hansen et. at. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,026) is the closest prior art known to applicants. It is directed to a scaffolding arrangement employed in constructing a major portion of the outer walls of a building. The scaffolding is set up on the inside of a partially constructed building with an arm of the scaffold extending outwardly of a partially completed outer wall providing support for workboards for the bricklayer to stand on to complete a major portion of the outer wall. Portions of the wall in the shape of a window or similar opening are left unfinished in the wall in order to retract the support arm as the scaffolding is removed. The unfinished openings in the wall are later closed by using scaffolding suspended from the roof.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel scaffold assembly that is mounted on an exterior horizontal surface of a building, such as a walkway or balcony, that includes cantilever means extending outwardly thereof to provide support for a worker.
A more specific object of this invention is the provision of a novel, fully adjustable scaffold assembly that is mounted on the upper face of a walkway or balcony of a multi-story building. The scaffold assembly utilizes a cantilever support beam extending over the balcony safety wall to support a worker.
A further object of this invention is to provide a novel scaffold assembly mounted on the surface of a walkway or balcony having a safety wall, the scaffold assembly includes a cantilever support beam extending over the safety wall for supporting a first worker and a second support suspended from the support beam and extending to a level below the worker to carry a second worker.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a novel scaffold assembly that is mounted on an exterior horizontal surface of a multi-story building such as a walkway or balcony that includes a safety wall. The scaffold assembly includes a cantilever support beam that extends over the safety wall, and when positioned on the horizontal support surface, most components of the assembly are near the periphery of the support surface. This construction provides ample obstruction-free space on the support surface which permits unencumbered movement of workmen around the scaffold.
The present invention alleviates many of the problems encountered in using conventional scaffolding. Specifically, this invention provides a novel adjustable cantilever scaffold apparatus to easily access the more difficult to reach areas around the balconies of multistory buildings. The entire scaffold structure is mounted on the floor of a balcony or similar structure and includes cantilevered beams extending outwardly over the wall of the balcony to support workboards for the workers. Most components of the assembly are positioned near the periphery of the support surface when assembled to permit unencumbered movement of workmen around the scaffold.
These and other important objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as this description proceeds.